President Obama argued for gay rights in Kenya, a country where one can get as many as 14 years in prison for having gay sex, in a joint press conference with Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
"If somebody is a law-abiding citizen, who is going about their business... and not harming anybody, the idea that they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong," said Obama, according to the BBC. "Full stop."
Obama likened the gay rights movement happening in countries like Kenya to the civil rights movement in the U.S. South. He said he is "painfully aware of the history when people are treated differently under the law," the Associated Press reports.
"That's the path whereby freedoms begin to erode and bad things happen," said Obama. "Where a government gets in the habit of treating people differently, those habits can spread."
Kenyatta deflected Obama's comments, calling the issue of gay rights "is not really an issue on the foremost mind of Kenyans. And that is a fact."
Al-jazeera reports that Kenyatta argued that most Kenyans simply do not share the same values about same-sex relationships and marriage as Americans do. "There are some things that we must admit we don't share. It's very difficult for us to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept," said Kenyatta.
[h/t Slate]
